Enter a word, phrase, description, or pattern above to find synonyms, related words, and more.
Concept clusters in the subject Activities (Top)
Abandoning Able to obtain something Abstract verb Accusing someone of wrongdoing Acting properly Adhering to Adjacent Advancing Affixing Aggravating Amputation Angering Angering (2) Announcing Applying pressure Arm-twisting Arrival Arriving at a certain place Assay Attack Attack (2) Attaining Avoiding Awakening Back Backlogged Backwards Beating or hitting something Beating someone up Becoming ill Becoming less tense or rigid Beginning a project or task Beginning a task or activity Behind deadline Bending or flexing Besieging or beleaguering Betrayal Betting Biting with one's teeth Blockbuster Body position Bouncing back Boundaries or limits Breaking a fly on a wheel Bribery Bringing under Calling someone or something Cant Capturing or seizing someone Car crash Carjacking Carrying Carrying/supporting Casting (arts) Catching Causing destruction or damage Causing harm Causing something to happen Causing trouble Champion Championship Change horses in mid-stream Chasing or pursuing something Cherry-picking Circling Circular Clearing something Closing or shutting something Closing something Coercion Coercion (2) Collision Competing Competing against others Competition Computer crashing Concluding something Configuring a system or device Consequences Constructing something Continuing on one's merry way Conversing Coping with crime Creating from scratch Cutting Cutting (2) Cutting something into pieces Cutting something off or apart Declaring Decline or decrease Deconstructing Decreasing Decreasing something Delaying or stopping an action Delaying or stopping something Demote Departing Descending Dethroning Diagonal opposites Diminishing Discarding something Disempower Disrupting negatively Dissatisfaction Distributing something Diversion Domesticate Doubling Down or downward motion Downgrading or lowering Drawing in EV charging Endeavoring Entering a place Entering a place or area Enunciate Epic failure Escaping or leaving a place Event or occurrence Exceeding a boundary or limit Exceeding a limit Exerting force or influence Exhibiting something Exiting swiftly Expediting Expel Expel (2) Exploring Expressing anger or annoyance Expunging or erasing something Extracting something Failure Failure (2) Falling downward Fighting back Fighting or competing Figuring something out Filled to capacity Filling a gap Filling something up Finding something by chance Fired from a job Fixed phrase Flip-flopping Fooling around Fortification Free time Games Genuflecting Get going Getting one's life in order Getting rid of something Give out Giving away Giving one's best effort Giving up Giving up something Gripping Halt Hand gestures Handshake greeting Haptic sensation Harming Having a reserve of something Having control over something Helping someone with something High five Hopping or jumping Impediment Inciting Induce Intensifying Interfering Investing Issue Job mobility Keep one's cool Keeping quiet Kidnapping Knowing Knowing something very well Labor strikes Launching something Laying Leading Leading the way Letting go Listening Loading Loading or carrying something Locked in or shut in Looking or observing something Looking out for oneself Losing one's temper Loss or destruction Lowering or reducing something Lying down Making a U-turn in a vehicle Making a mistake Making a mistake (2) Making an offer Managing time Manipulating someone Manipulation Measuring distances Meeting someone Messed up Migrate Militarily striking Military parade Military reconnaissance Military saber-rattling Movement Moving or going over something Moving quickly or with urgency Muster Northern English dialect Not giving up Nullifying Obscuring/deleting Observing something Occurring Odd One's own death Opening something Openly expressing emotions Opposites Outdoing someone or something Outfitting Outperforming Overburdened Overcoming obstacles Overcoming or exceeding Overloaded Overpassing Overturning Passing Paying attention to something Physical combat Physical embrace Physical violence Picking someone up Placing one thing over another Playing hooky Playing truant Pointing Posturing Pot stirrer Presenting something Prizefighting Producing a result Professional wrestling Professional wrestling (2) Proposing Protrusion Providing service to someone Punishing someone Pursuit Pushing or shoving something Putting something right Randomizing a set of items Rap music Reaching a goal Rearward Reclining Reducing or lowering something Release Releasing Releasing or freeing something Relinquish Removing Removing clothing Removing something completely Rest or relaxation Restricted or confined Restricting Retreating Retro or backwards Returning or going back Reversal Reverting Reverting (2) Risk-taking and consequences Romantic love Round or circular shape Run for the exercise Saluting or greeting someone Saving or conserving something Saying goodbye Sealing Seeing something Seeming appropriate Seizing property or assets Self-awareness Self-reliance Self-reliance (2) Sending away Separating Separating (2) Separation Settling Shifting gears in a vehicle Shooting a gun Showing one's true colours Side by side Sitting on a bench Sleep Slipping away Smash Sneaking Speaking in a roundabout way Squandering Staying awake Stirring up trouble Stockpiling Stretching something Striking to incapacitate Subsidence Succeeding or achieving Taking a chance Taking a journey or tour Taking a seat Taking action Taking action (2) Taking action (3) Taking money from someone else Taking on a leadership role Taking on something Taking or obtaining something Taking someone's life Taking someone's life (2) Taming Telling someone to be quiet Testing something Theft Throw Thrusting Time off Time-waste Touching Trapped or imprisoned Traveling Trial by fire Triumph or victory Two people meeting in a direct Un-ing something Un-ing something (2) Un-prefixing a verb Understanding something Undoing Undoing or releasing something Unexpected occurrence Unmasking Upping Using one's fists Vanishing into thin air Very talkative Wandering Warning Watching something Wheel spinning or revolving Withdrawing Withdrawing rights Working Working hard Working together Wrecking or ruining something Writing RTL text Yielding


This subject index is an experimental OneLook feature. We've grouped words and phrases into thousands of clusters based on a statistical analysis of how they are used in writing. Some of the words and concepts may be vulgar or offensive. The names of the clusters were written automatically and may not precisely describe every word within them.

How do I use OneLook's thesaurus / reverse dictionary?

OneLook lets you find any kind of word for any kind of writing. Like a traditional thesaurus, you can use it to find synonyms and antonyms, but it's far more flexible. Describe what you're looking for with a single word, a few words, or even a whole sentence. Type in your description and hit Enter (or select a word that shows up in the autocomplete preview) to see the related words. You can order, filter, and explore the words that come back in a variety of creative ways. Here's a video which goes over some of the basics.

What are some examples?

Task
Example searches
🔆 Find a word by describing it barrel maker
before the flood
museum guide
search for food
urge to travel
what a milliner makes
tried twice for the same crime
when cancer spreads through the body
🔆 Explore synonyms and related concepts fancy
baseball
clouds
twisty
push
industrial revolution
🔆 Get a list of words in some category ("type of...") type of bird of prey
type of soft cheese
type of light bulb
🔆 Find more words similar to some examples (comma-separated list) squishy,spongy,gooey
bicycle,motorcycle,scooter
ice cream,pie,cookies
🔆 Answer basic identification questions capital of Vietnam
longest river in the world
original host of Jeopardy
🔆 Solve crossword puzzle clues, or find words if you only know some of the letters.
(Use pattern:description syntax) 		??lon:synthetic fabric
s?nt?:christmas
l*ch*:fruit
??????:hit
c*:board game

Exploring the results

Click on any result to see definitions and usage examples tailored to your search, as well as links to follow-up searches and additional usage information when available. OneLook knows about more than 2 million different words and expressions covering every topic under the sun. Try exploring a favorite topic for a while and you'll be surprised how much new stuff there is to learn!

Ordering the results

Your results will initially appear with the most closely related word shown first, the second-most closely shown second, and so on. You can re-order the results in a variety of different ways, including alphabetically, by length, by popularity, by modernness, by formality, and by other aspects of style. Click the box that says "Closest meaning first..." to see them all. (Here's a short video about sorting and filtering with OneLook Thesaurus.)

Filtering the results

You can refine your search by clicking on the "Advanced filters" button on the results page. This lets you narrow down your results to match a certain starting letter, number of letters, number of syllables, related concept, meter, vowel sound, or number of syllables. Read more details on filters if you're interested in how they work.

I'm only looking for synonyms! What's with all of these weird results?

For some kinds of searches only the first result or the first few results are truly synonyms or good substitutions for your search word. We highlight these results in yellow. Beyond that, the results are meant to inspire you to consider similar words and adjacent concepts. Not all of the results will make sense at first, but they're all connected with your search in some way. We'd rather give you too many options than too few. If you're unsure of a word, we urge you to click on it to check its definitions and usage examples before using it in your Oscars acceptance speech or honors thesis.

What are letter patterns?

If you know some letters in the word you're looking for, you can enter a pattern instead of, or in addition to, a description. Here are how patterns work:
  • The asterisk (*) matches any number of letters. That means that you can use it as a placeholder for any part of a word or phrase. For example, if you enter blueb* you'll get all the terms that start with "blueb"; if you enter *bird you'll get all the terms that end with "bird"; if you enter *lueb* you'll get all the terms that contain the sequence "lueb", and so forth. An asterisk can match zero letters, too.

  • The question mark (?) matches exactly one letter. That means that you can use it as a placeholder for a single letter or symbol. The query l?b?n?n,  for example, will find the word "Lebanon".

  • The number-sign (#) matches any English consonant. For example, the query tra#t finds the word "tract" but not "trait".

  • The at-sign (@) matches any English vowel (including "y"). For example, the query abo@t finds the word "about" but not "abort".

  • NEW! The comma (,) lets you combine multiple patterns into one. For example, the query ?????,*y* finds 5-letter words that contain a "y" somewhere, such as "happy" and "rhyme".

  • NEW! Use double-slashes (//) before a group of letters to unscramble them (that is, find anagrams.) For example, the query //soulbeat will find "absolute" and "bales out", and re//teeprsn will find "represent" and "repenters". You can use another double-slash to end the group and put letters you're sure of to the right of it. For example, the query //blabrcs//e will find "scrabble". Question marks can signify unknown letters as usual; for example, //we??? returns 5-letter words that contain a W and an E, such as "water" and "awake".

  • NEW! A minus sign (-) followed by some letters at the end of a pattern means "exclude these letters". For example, the query sp???-ei finds 5-letter words that start with "sp" but do not contain an "e"or an "i", such as "spoon" and "spray".

  • NEW! A plus sign (+) followed by some letters at the end of a pattern means "restrict to these letters". For example, the query *+ban finds "banana".

  • On OneLook's main search or directly on OneLook Thesaurus, you can combine patterns and thesaurus lookups by putting a colon (:) after a pattern and then typing a description of the word, as in ??lon:synthetic fabric and the other examples above.

Other ways to access this service:

Is this available in any language other than English?

The same interface is now available in Spanish at OneLook Tesauro as a beta version. More languages are coming!

How does it work?

We use a souped-up version of our own Datamuse API, which in turn uses several lingustic resources described in the "Data sources" section on that page. The definitions come from Wiktionary, Wikipedia, and WordNet. Here are some known problems with the current system.
Much gratitude to Gultchin et al for the algorithm behind the "Most funny-sounding" sort order.

Profanity and problematic word associations

If you're using this site with children, be forewarned you'll find profanity and other vulgar expressions if you use OneLook frequently. (We take an unflinching look at how words have actually been used; scrubbing out hurtful wordswould be a disservice to everyone.)

Some of the thesaurus results come from a statistical analysis of the words in a large collection of books written in the past two centuries. A handful of times we've found that this analysis can lead us to suggest word associations that reflect racist or harmful stereotypes present in this source material. If you see one of these, please know that we do not endorse what the word association implies. In egregious cases we will remove it from the site if you report it to us via the feedback link below.

Privacy

No personally identifying information is ever collected on this site or by any add-ons or apps associated with OneLook. OneLook Thesaurus sends your search query securely to the Datamuse API, which keeps a log file of the queries made to the service in the last 24 hours. The log file is deleted after 24 hours and we do not retain any long-term information about your IP address or invididual queries.

Who's behind this site and where can I send my comments and complaints feedback?

OneLook is a service of Datamuse. You can send us feedback here.

The sunburst logo (🔆) is the emoji symbol for "high brightness", which we aspire to create with OneLook. (The graphic came from the open-source Twemoji project.)


Watch a video overview of OneLook Thesaurus